Ireland v South Africa Virgin media 17:30

Great stuff. It will worry SA for the world cup. Tough test match. We have a fine squad.

My issues isn't his age, it's that if he gets injured come WC time we're shagged. Really need to try to accelerate Frawley and Crowley to the level needed. If 10 is the question, Carbery isn't the answer.

I was thinking that, at least close - must be the angle though because nobody else mentioned it.

That was a great game, obviously a great win but some amount of battle scars after that.

Well what a game. Everything you could want for preparing an Irish team for the World Cup.

Well done to the squad and management all. Ireland can win both with and without the ball and against physical and running teams alike. We vary our game with little obvious detriment.

Thats more than enough to win a World Cup. And I think Andy Farrell's oversight is the very thing to keep the fire burning at just the right level for the next 11 months.

Interesting times.

Great win. That will be a big mental boost for this team. Went toe to toe with 14 huge forwards and eked out a victory. Scrum was decent overall but our lineout is shaky and needs serious work over the next 12 months. We won't make the WC SF with that lineout.

Was fearful coming into the game that our backrow would be overwhelmed. But to a man, they were excellent. POM made 33 meters, made turnovers and took 5 lineouts. JvdF proves again that he's by far our best 7, and possibly the top 7 in world rugby. Doris put in a huge shift, tackling and carrying like a demon. Any of those three deserved MoM. Porter was top notch, Sheehan too bar the lineouts but I think that's more a systems issue. Bealham did fine, but the drop from Furlong to him is there. The locks worked tirelessly, Ryan outshone Beirne in that regard which doesn't tend to be the case often. Murray was decent but Park was better bar one fluffed kick. Had to feel for McCloskey, was going great before the injury. O'Brien did really well on his debut, looked at home at this level. Ringrose was really solid, always is. Serious player. Back 3 also super solid, wasn't a game for Baloucone to show his pace and skill but crucially he showed he can do the basics well. Very pleasing outing.

Special mention for the Georgian ref, thought he did a fine job in a very physical game. Wouldn't fear him reffing any future Ireland games.

SA are a nightmare to play against. You aren't going to play free flowing rugby against them. They came today with a monster pack and a 6/2 split to strangle us up front. We matched them up and played the better rugby with ball in hand. We scored two excellent tries, one cut them completely open and the other from a driving maul.

The fact we beat them with plenty of room for improvement in our accuracy is fantastic. It means we no longer need to play at 100% perfection to beat the top team but more often than not the opposition quite frankly do to beat us.

This might be a post for the Ireland team discussion thread, but Ireland's performance tonight might be very bad news for some of the forwards who struggled against the New Zealand 15 last night.

There was a marked lack of intensity, physicality and accuracy from last night's backrow especially. It's the sort of performance that might see you lose out on world cup selection. That was an opportunity to put your hand up for squad selection. But nobody up front put their hands up.

Must add, our maul defence was outstanding. Credit Paul O'Connell there

I think you may be watching the wrong spor, if you couldn't enjoy that.

Wonderful, tense, physical game...

Between Bealham and Porter, I thought the same. Would have to see it back